CultureLoad

Still Time: Ready to rock the world

“We get to spread our work across the country, meet some really cool people, and have some unforgettable experiences.”

Still Time has managed to do what other bands dream of all their lives. They are touring the United States right now, playing shows in cities such as Seattle, New Orleans, Philadelphia or San Francisco. Back in 2004 when the band was founded in San Luis Obispo, CA, nobody would have guessed that a nationwide tour would someday be a possible and reachable project. But time has proved them wrong and after releasing two albums in 2007 (“Stream of Consciousness”) and 2009 (“See America”) they are now travelling the country “to bring people together in a positive community to experience music and to share life with people you may not have otherwise met”.

Fans can be lucky that exactly these six guys have met through music and that they are devoting their lives for their art. The band itself describes their music as Groove Rock. "More specifically, our music is a mixture of blues, funk, jazz, folk and rock.” The different songs reflect this diversity of genres and sounds and although the band emphasizes that they would recommend different songs depending on what your taste is, they still found three songs as an advice for new listeners. “9 to 5” on "Stream of Consciousness", and “Come Alive” or “The Fortune” on “See America” would be the songs to check out. But one really cool aspect of both albums is that there’s something for everyone on each of them—the albums reach across a lot of genres.”

And while they think that “Stream of Consciousness” is much more singer-songwriter driven, and has a more rock/reggae flavor to it, “See America” is much more reflective of their unified sound—the style they have reached after years of playing music together. “Our sound on See America has a more rootsy/bluesy feel to it (slide guitar, harmonica, mandolin), but keeps the Still Time signature we display on the first album.”

Their creativity also shows in the writing process for their latest album “See America”. “We were writing in places outside of our regular practice room, and then record the songs in places that really brought out the character of the tune. We ended up writing and recording in loads of places; everywhere from an old mansion in San Francisco, to the forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains,” the band explains. And the result of this is nothing to sneeze at.

But not only is the music itself important to them. “Lyrics of a song to me are what take a song to the next level as far as emotional connection with the listener. I have heard countless songs with incredible music and terrible lyrics and I can't get past it. I think lyrics are incredibly important and although I'm sure many people don't take the time to truly understand the words in most great songs, for those that do and truly get it, there is an understanding between the listener and artist that can't be broken from that point on.”

For the future they hope to spread their tunes and messages across the whole world. “I think that’s our next goal after completing this national tour. We’d love to get to Europe and Australia, especially for the festivals they have in the summertime. Our guitar player, Haircut, has a lot of family in Switzerland, so we know we have at least a few fans over there.“

Listeners can go to Still Time’s MySpace page to see if there is a show close to them. And those who are not on the lucky side this time, can keep on listening to their tunes on CultureLoad and hope that we will be able to give them a warm welcome very soon when they manage to make their next big dream come true: to make it over the big pond.

Nora Frei
Editorial Team